Clean freaks
by flyin'rabbit
Summary: Three Ravenclaws are desperate to come up with an idea that will show Hogwarts that they, too, are willing to take risks and are able to have fun. And what’s a better way to proof it than to make Snape their unwilling object of concern?


**Disclaimer**: I don't own the world of Harry Potter; however, I do own the plot. Although I don't even own that completely.

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When you were a Ravenclaw, people often thought you were incredibly smart, stuck up, serious and studious. That you always had your nose buried in a book, that you were concentrated on classes the entire day and that your idea of fun was spending the whole week doing homework.

Yeah, right.

Determined to show everyone that Ravenclaws weren't just bookworms, but that they could have fun, be daring, and were willing to take a risk, three Ravenclaws sat huddled together in their common room on a rainy Tuesday evening. All they needed was a plan, and then set up the stuff to help them carry it out.

"Well, guys, do you have any ideas?" a dark haired boy asked his two companions.

"None," one of the other boys answered, showing the first boy his empty notebook. "You'd think that we, as Ravenclaws, should be able to come up with one little idea, right?"

The last boy, who, unlike his friends, had a largely unkempt mop of blond hair on his head, snorted. "Well, after this, they won't see us as a bunch of nerds anymore, that's for sure."

His two friends just rolled their eyes in response and they were silent again. Occasionally, one of them would suddenly sit up, or started saying something, but it was never followed by an actual idea.

"Why don't we just give this up?" the blond boy said after a while. "We're obviously not made to be pranksters or something."

"Maybe you're right…," one of the others said, "we still have that Potions essay to do anyway." The other two suddenly looked temporarily thunderstruck, then shared one glance between the two of them, and looked at their friend, grins forming on their face. "Okay, what did I say now?" he asked uncertainly.

"Potions," the other two said simultaneously.

"What are you, the Weasley twins?" their friend asked them warily. "I think they own the exclusive right on saying stuff at the same time."

"Maybe we could be after this," one of them said, while the other nodded furiously. "Only, we'll be more like the Weasley triplets, if you practice along, but we'll get there, don't worry, Michael."

"So," the boy called Michael said, "what is this master plan of yours?"

"Like we, or you, actually, said, Potions!" his blond friend replied, grinning from ear to ear. "We prank Snape!"

"Are you sure that's such a good idea?" Michael asked sceptically. "Do you have any idea how much trouble we could get in if we prank _Snape_?"

"Wasn't that exactly the point?" the other boy said. "Get in trouble so the school will realise that we Ravenclaws can actually be fun and all?"

"Yes, Anthony, I realise that, but don't you think we could do something less… extreme?" Michael asked, wondering if he should reconsider his participation in this plan.

"That's right, it's _extreme_! If it wasn't, where would the fun be?" Anthony asked Michael, laughing a little. "What do you say, Terry? Any ideas yet on how we should work?"

Terry looked up from the notebook that he'd grabbed from Anthony and shook his head. "Nope, sorry. Maybe it's the notebook, maybe it's cursed…" He started looking at it wearily until Michael snatched it out of his hands.

"Enough now, guys. If you really want to go through with this, I'm in too." A grin spread on his face. "Now, for the plan… how about we turn his robes pink? Or blue?"

Anthony pulled a face. "Can't we do something a little less… obvious? I mean, do something so Snape won't immediately know we're _pranking_ him? Something that will weird him out, but…"

"Something that won't land us in detention, but rather in the Hospital Wing," Terry added, when Anthony fell silent, "because he questions our sanity."

"I'm weirded out by you two now as well," Michael told them, "talking simultaneously is one thing, but completing each other's sentences?"

"We've been secretly following, copying and imitating Fred and George Weasley for the past four and a half years," Terry told him, and although he pulled a serious face while saying that, both other boys knew he was just joking.

"Quite obsessive there, Terry," Michael said, "but now, the plan. Do you have any ideas that will land us in the Hospital Wing?"

"I'm working on something, guys," Anthony said slowly. "What do you think of this?" He then proceeded to tell them his plan, and Michael and Terry shared a look. Their friend was really some sort of evil genius. It wasn't too obvious nor too extreme, but Snape wouldn't know what hit him.

The next morning, the threesome woke up early to make sure everything was set for their prank, or whatever you would want to call it. While Anthony and Michael went through the materials one more time, Terry was summing up what exactly they had to do. "I can't believe we're doing this, guys," he exclaimed happily, "it's going to be so funny to see how Snape will react."

Anthony frowned a little. Although Michael had been the reluctant one at first, now he was the one who was having second thoughts. Terry was too insane for those. "Well, let's hope we'll still find it funny after class." As if it wasn't idiotic enough that they were going to disrupt Snape's class, they had the entire day to look forward to it. Potions was their last class of the day, right before dinner. It was usually a pretty calm one, since everyone was scared of Snape. Another thing that might add to the silence was that Ravensclaws and Hufflepuffs got along fine, which couldn't exactly be said of the Gryffindors and Slytherins, so that class was therefore much more chaotic.

"Oh, it'll be fine, I'm sure," Michael tried to ease him. "Now do we have everything? Let's go to breakfast then. Oh, and Terry? Make sure you don't tell anyone about this."

Terry pretended to be offended. "Well, same to you, Michael. Try not to tell that girlfriend of yours."

"Yeah, because it's very likely that she'll support Snape in this," Michael snorted.

"No, but she might find it a little odd that we are going to almost pretend to be her older brothers," Terry said seriously.

Michael just shrugged. He supposed Ginny would find it quite amusing what they were planning, but if his friends reckoned he shouldn't tell her beforehand, he'd give her a detailed report afterwards. If they were still alive by then, of course.

Long as the day might have seemed that morning, Potions seemed to come very quickly for the three boys. They gathered outside the classroom to talk their plan through once more. When they saw Snape coming, they quickly hurried inside, hiding their top secret stuff beneath their desks. Snape stepped into the room and Michael got up, as this was his cue. Anthony and Terry gave him the thumbs up and Michael slowly made his way towards Snape's desk, while everyone in the room was watching him strangely, Snape included.

"Mr Corner, what's this supposed to mean?" Snape asked, taking a few steps towards Michael, but apparently not really daring to come too close. After all, he had no idea what to expect from this boy, since he was normally quite well-behaved.

Michael showed him a brush and then, ignoring the stunned looks of his classmates and Professor, he started wiping down Snape's seat. When he was done, he took a step back, and said, "There, Professor, you can sit down now." With that, he returned to his desk, where Terry and Anthony sat, trying to suppress their laughter.

"Look as his face," Terry whispered happily, although a little needless. Snape was still rooted to his spot.

"Maybe you should sit down, Professor," Anthony called out, "before the little things come back."

Snape jerked his head in their direction. "What little things are you talking about, Mr Goldstein?"

"Oh, I don't really know," Anthony replied truthfully. "The ones Luna Lovegood won't stop talking about." His comment caused some people to snigger softly.

Snape still eyed the chair quite suspiciously, but suddenly, he sat down. "Now, no more interruptions," he said, trying to stay as calm (and strict) as possible. If these boys didn't have a reputation for never disrupting a class and never pranking anyone, he wouldn't have trusted that chair ever again. Feeling nothing strange, he proceeded to explain what potion they would be brewing today. He waved his wand at the blackboard and everything the class needed to do, was on there.

He stood up from his chair and walked towards the cabinet in which the ingredients were, intending to keep an eye on the students as they freely roamed through it. All but one. Snape whirled around again and, sure enough, Terry Boot was cleaning his chair almost as fervently as Corner had done minutes earlier. He wasn't using a brush though, but some old rag, and to top it all, he was humming to himself while he did that. _Humming!_ As if it was the most normal thing to do, cleaning the chairs of his Professors! As soon as almost all the other students were seated again, Boot returned to his desk, where his friends had laid down the ingredients for him.

Snape's eyes narrowed. What were these boys playing at?

He reluctantly sat down again, wondering what else they could be planning. He almost didn't dare to stand up again. Looking up, he saw the threesome beaming at him. He quickly jerked his head the other way. Maybe they had hit their heads, or maybe during Charms class, they had been hexed to act like this. Or maybe in Transfiguration, their brains had been deformed. And people said Ravenclaws were supposed to be smart.

After a while, Snape had to get up from his chair again, to see what the students were doing and to correct them. Reluctantly, he stood up, and before he knew what he was doing, he automatically walked towards the desks where Boot, Corner and Goldstein were sitting. They were always the first to be done with their potions, so Snape expected the same to be the case today. He hadn't thought about how it would be much more tactical if he inspected their potions last this time.

Inspecting the potions, Snape couldn't find much wrong with them. "Goldstein, your potion is too green; Boot, do something about that smell; Corner, you forgot the last step." Which was a lot better than the rest of the class. Snape hoped that they hadn't formed the idea that, seeing as they were intelligent enough, they could also disrupt classes now. It reminded him of certain people and he didn't like that at all.

When he was about halfway through the class, Snape suddenly heard someone getting up again. Praying that it wasn't some Ravenclaw-gone-House-Elf again, he turned around, just in time to see Anthony Goldstein cleaning his chair _again_, but with a broom this time. Snape made a mental note to himself to check every student's pockets and bag before he let them in.

After class, he walked out of the room for a second, to make sure that all students were gone. "Quick!" Michael whispered to his friends, elbowing them both in the ribs. "Time for the grand finale!"

They hurried towards Snape's chair again and Anthony conjured up a bucket of water. Terry and Michael grabbed their rag and brush and they started cleaning the chair again, as thorough as possible. When the chair was completely spotless, Terry grabbed another rag and started drying it, all the while trying to contain his laughter, just like his friends.

When they finally looked up, Snape was standing right in front of them. "Er – hi, Professor," Anthony said nervously.

"What are you trying to do, Goldstein?" Snape asked, becoming more annoyed every second.

"We're cleaning your chair, Professor," Anthony replied. "We didn't want you to catch something."

Snape raised an eyebrow. "What would I catch, Goldstein?"

"Anything, Professor. With all these people at Hogwarts, you never know what you might catch."

"And therefore, you're cleaning my chair?" Snape watched them as they seemed to shrink under his gaze. "I think I know what to do with you. I can't proof that you were messing with me, but to avoid another one of your ideas…" Seeing that the boys seemed to gain a little hope, he was keen on immediately shattering it again. "If you like cleaning and disinfecting so much, I know exactly the perfect detention for you three for disrupting my class."

After dinner, the three boys found themselves cleaning and disinfecting the Hospital Wing as the punishment Snape had given them. Fortunately, it was only for one evening, since it was their first 'offence'. As far as they were concerned, it was not only their first, but their last as well. They had expected it to work out differently; this wasn't their idea of fun either.

"As if we hadn't cleaned enough already to last a year!" Michael said grumpily, scrubbing the floor. Anthony muttered his consent while he tried to remove a cobweb from under a bed.

Terry, who had been told to start cleaning the windows, turned to his friends with a sheepish look on his face. "Well, at least we were sent to the Hospital Wing…"

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**A/N**: Well, what did you think? This was my story for the Ways to bother Professor Snape-challenge on the HPFF-forums. My way to bother Snape was: when he enters his classroom, scurry over and wipe down his seat before he has a chance to sit down. If you have any comments whatsoever, don't hesitate to review!


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